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END OF THE ROAD

LOWELL – Approximately 120 oversized and overweight trucks rolled through Island Pond, Charleston, and Derby and onto Interstate 91 before exiting in Orleans and continuing on to the Kingdom Community Wind site in Lowell. The trucks caused few reported problems. Traffic delays were up to 20 minutes near corners and the rollover accident caused one side of the Interstate to be closed down for several hours. Some road damage did occur in Island Pond, according to town administrator Joel Cope. He said that Back Street was damaged from the truckloads and that he is assured someone will fix it. Back Street was in poor shape before the trucks loads rolled over it, and Cope says now it’s even worse. But GMP officials say they did not damage the road and have documentation to prove it. Dorothy (Dotty) Schnure, corporate spokesperson for GMP, said that the Town of Brighton asked GMP to upgrade the road, but she believes the town is working out the issue with someone else. The turbines came into Island Pond by rail before being loaded on the trucks.“We received a permit from the town to use the road. We did not damage the road, but the town has asked us to upgrade the road. The railhead folks are working with the town in order to come to a resolution,” Schnure wrote in a statement.Cope noted in a previous interview that Back Street had problems in one area and he had expressed concern over the heavy truckloads using it.In Derby, no problems were reported with the trucks. Chairman of the Derby Select Board, Brian Smith, said he was unaware of any issues besides minor traffic delays amounting to only minutes.The final large piece to complete the Lowell Wind Project arrived at the construction site around 4 Monday afternoon. All other turbines components are on site and being pieced together to form the 21, 450-foot-plus towers for the project, which is on schedule to go on line fully by December.The final component was the turbine base that was damaged in a rollover accident in mid-July. The part was repaired in Marmen, Quebec.